Honourable Minister for the National Department of Science and Technology, Mr Derek Hanekom
Speaker of our Legislature Mr Fikile Xasa and Members of Executive Council for the province of Eastern Cape present here
Cabinet Ministers from various countries present
Executive Mayor for Buffalo City Metro Municipality: Ms Zukiswa Ncitha
Vice President for Finance and Private Sector Development World Bank: Mr Janamitra Devan
Program Manager Infodev, World Bank: Ms Valerie D’Costa
Director-Genenral for the Department of Science and Technology: Mr Phil Mjwara
Director-General for the Province of Eastern Cape: Mr Mbulelo Sogoni
Heads of Departments and other senior government officials
Private sector partners
Delegates from various countries
Entrepreneurs
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the citizens of this province it is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this 5th Global Forum for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship, held for the first time on the African Continent.
This Forum for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship is a momentous occasion as it presents us with a platform to gather our collective thoughts and exchange ideas for Global Economic Growth. Mr Vice President of the World Bank, it is always part of our practice to interact with the rest of the world, in order to learn and share our best practices and insights with the international community. These engagements are vital for us and yield sustainable spin offs for our province and its citizens.
We feel very honoured and privileged that the organisers decided that the Eastern Cape province hosts a forum of this significance. As some of you may already know, our province is the home of our Country’s Political Legends such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Govan and Thabo Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Chris Hani and many others.
This forum has come to our province at a time when we fully embrace and encourage the institutionalisation of Technological Innovation in all sectors with the aim of improving economic growth.
In this regard the province is highly acknowledged for excellence in various fields of industries. These include the motor sector industry which comprises Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen (VW) and General Motors to mention a few. Furthermore, our province is also known for brilliance in mohair production, agro-processing, Green Economy production and advanced facilities of battery technology. Some of the world class research in Nano-technology and ICT is also done in our Universities. The province of Eastern Cape offers a variety of prospects with regard to investment in business opportunities and it is our intention to strengthen Public and Private Partnerships with various organisations to advance socio-economic growth through Innovation.
Our country realised the significance of innovation and technology in leveraging socio-economic development. As a result, the province has increased its efforts to focus on creating platforms for the creation of innovative instruments.
For instance we have put in place structures to accelerate the establishment of innovation and technology infrastructure. We also coordinate innovation stakeholders and generate quality applied research for economic development purposes. At a public sector level, our province has embraced the concept of innovation for the transformation of our Public Institutions, by adopting the Public Sector Innovation and Knowledge Management Strategy. Furthermore, the Province is in a Process of adopting a Framework which would focus on developing SMMEs and entrepreneurs whilst forging partnerships with Researchers, Academia and other sectors of Economic Growth.
Through these mechanisms, practical arrangements are fostered to stimulate indigenous knowledge systems and mainstream these in the economic development agenda. We have already seen positive spin-offs of these arrangements and it is our intention to intensify our efforts to yield even better results.
We therefore commend the efforts of Minister Hanekom and the Department of Science and Technology as well as Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) in assisting us to set up our innovative instruments.
Ladies and gentlemen the Global economy is going through turbulent times with limited resources and this compels us to come up with Innovative ways to overcome various constraints in the market.
We are grateful to the World Bank and its ICT arm, InfoDev, for the progressive vision to share resources and experiences with us in such important aspects of the modern economy, innovation and ICT. We do hope and trust that this conference will leave a lasting impact and legacy amongst all of us. It will assist in creating a global network of innovators and entrepreneurs who, in various ways, would assist in stimulating research and business growth.
We also support and commit ourselves to various partnership and initiatives between our Provincial innovation drivers and their counterparts at InfoDev/World Bank. The quality of the decisions and legacy initiatives that would emerge from this Conference would be the result of our collective intelligence that would bring positive change to our economic endeavours.
Lastly, I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all the participants who have travelled around the world to be part of us. I trust that your stay in our province will be a fruitful and enjoyable one and your participation and ideas in this Forum will promote the advancement of our ideals.
I firmly believe that “If we can dream it we can do it, and if we can do it we can live it”.
I thank you.
